Space

This is an excellent mini-series with lots of stars and a great story line. If you liked Right Stuff, Apollo 13, Space Camp then this is for you. Lots of sub plots to keep it interesting. Definitely worth watching if you can find it.

From Penemundee to the tragic 'Apollo 18', it was quite an inspiration to saw this miniseries as a kid 15 years ago. The 80s saw the production of some of the best TV miniseries around and this is certainly one of them. As usual, the novel was even better though I only got to read it years later. It potrayed the human spirit version of the space program in their golden era. Great work by Harry Hamlin and Michael York as John Pope and Dieter Kolf respectively. If you're looking for some heart warming, feel good time, this's one worth the watch.

I saw this movie in 1988 and I found it to be a very entertaining history on early space travel. It ranks up there with The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. The acting was great, and the story progressed at a good clip. If you find this on Cable TV someday, watch it. You won't be disappointed.

My thoughts are essentially in agreement with the previous commentators. If you've read the book you'll know what to expect: an "epic" in the true sense of the word. The Mercury, Gemini and early Apollo astronauts are depicted pretty well as history shows them; in fact it seems difficult to separate the fictional from the might-be-real-but-not-well-known.

The version I saw in Australia has a final section covering the destruction of the "Challenger". This is done is a somewhat different style to the rest of the movie (a bit too "soft focus" and "tearjerker" for my liking), and is not in the book, either.

In style and approach, I would rate this as a little closer to "Right Stuff" than to "Apollo 13".

The series was actually filmed in many locations including Chestertown, Maryland which was transformed into the town of Clay. While filming in Chestertown was proceeding, a second unit filming in Huntsville, Alabama fell behind schedule. One scene the second unit was supposed to film was the swearing in of the WWII German rocket scientists. It was decided to use the old Chestertown Courthouse for the scene.

Like most folks around Chestertown I had grown accustomed to watching Harry Hamlin and Blair Brown play their roles of young sweethearts. I was in my 20's and training for a triathlon that summer and often road my bike through Chestertown. One day I was detoured down a narrow back alley because filming was occurring on Main Street. I was tearing down the sidewalk because the narrow street was filled with actor's trailers. Suddenly a lanky figure in a baggy Edwardian suite came bounding out of trailer and I had to slam on the breaks and nearly lay my bike down to avoid hitting him. It was Bruce Dern! I followed him and watched as he and Michael York took the oath of citizenship from the Mayor of Chestertown, Elmer Horsey!